- It's once again time to get gutsy with Liz Hall
and her expert guests on the Gutsy Babe Podcast.
- Welcome to this episode of The Gutsy Babe.
I'm your host, Liz Hall.
In today's episode, we're gonna be discussing the business
of spirituality with Tom Jacobs.
Tom Jacobs is founder, director
of Timber Creek Retreat House 80 wooded acres
south of Kansas City.
His mission is to provide sanctuary time to his guests,
along with genuine hospitality, healthy food,
immersion in nature, renewal, rest, yoga, meditation,
mentoring, music, massage therapy,
and a safe, welcoming atmosphere.
Well, Tom, that sounds glorious. Check me in .
- Come on, we are ready for you.
- How did you get started off
with your spiritual path in life?
- The start of it was, uh, part growing up in a Jewish
Catholic home, and I was already getting the invitation
to think outside the boundaries .
And as things went on in time, uh, we advanced forward
and I ended up being a monk and a monastery.
I ended up being a later in a retreat house as one
of the staff members I had personally retreated most
of my life, so was my wife Beth.
And, uh, we joined together in this dream
to create a retreat house for sanctuary time, just
as you said in the introduction for people to come,
especially in nature Mm-Hmm.
and, uh, to treat them with loving kindness
and a lot of hospitality.
- Yeah. I, I truly believe that nature is healing.
- We have a lot of people that are very interested
and in need of that with the pace of life.
'cause everyone is go, go, go. Exactly.
But they don't stop, stop, stop. .
So they burn, burn burned, .
So we wanna replenish
and rejuvenate them so they can go back
to their lives feeling a little more, uh, purpose
and passion behind what they do instead
of just being robotically performing functions.
- Yeah. It's much needed in this world today.
Can you share a story of what motivated you
to open your center at Timber Creek?
- Well, I think most of the motivation was the observation
of people's stress in their lives, the deadlines,
the heavy schedules, and the lackluster, um, uh, interest
because they get so fatigued.
Uh, we also retreated ourselves
and we noticed what it did to us for rebooting our system
and replenishing our mind and our attitude.
Mm-Hmm. . So that became kind of the central observation
that came up with the idea, like, Hmm,
maybe we could create a place that that would be
what we would offer to people.
So that's what we did. Yeah.
- He saw a need to heal. Oh, the need.
- Yep. And - Help people learn to slow down a little.
So it's beautiful to have a retreat like that.
Uh, so I know we're, this is the business of spirituality,
so every organization is blessed
and cursed by growing pains.
Can you share some of the challenges you've overcome
in growing the center?
- Well, yeah. First of all, we've never seen anything as a
curse. - . Yeah, that's good.
- But we certainly see the blessings
and certainly, uh, at least I would say challenges,
I would say blessings and challenges.
I think when you're stepping into the unknown
to create any kind of a business,
whether it be spiritually based or business based.
Mm-Hmm. , you're stepping into an arena
where you do not know the outcomes.
So there's a risk factor that needs to be necessary
that you're, you're willing to step into the unknown.
Mm-Hmm. . And then of course, uh, you gather, uh,
information and you gather people around you
that support the dream, that are visionary, that are
very quick at bouncing back.
And they have a nice balance between being visionary
and also being very practical.
There's like a, there's a statement,
I think it's an Islamic statement that says, trust god,
but tie your camel .
So it's kind of like a blend of trust and practicality.
And it's really the use of both of our brain atmospheres,
the right brain and the left brain to produce
and manifest something that, uh, is not yet there
that can be there.
- Yeah. - For the invisible to the visible
or for the unknown to the known.
Yeah. And so the people that we gather
around us are supportive in that we're actually, uh,
we were partly selective in who we gathered around us.
Mm-Hmm. . And we were partly just receptive to
who spontaneously appeared. Mm-Hmm.
- Yeah. And, - Uh, that really helped us along.
It's not just just a solo, it's not just a solo endeavor.
- Yeah. - We had a woman who came to the retreat house
the first year we opened,
and she's very attentive to energy.
And she walked in the front door
and she went, oh,
this is a house built by love.
You know, and she could feel the energy of all the people
that have poured forth
and continued to pour forth their love
and energy to sustain the retreat house.
It's a nonprofit organization, by the way. Oh,
- That's - Good.
Yeah. 5 0 1 c3.
- That's, that's, that's great to hear.
So, um, because of that, do you get, um, additional people
that, you know, care for the nonprofits
that come in to support you
- All?
So all types. Yeah.
Some, some people are part of nonprofits
and most people that come here are involved in in profit
for profit business very busy lives.
- Right, right. - A lot of mothers Mm-Hmm.
and, uh, who are both mothering
and doing a profession at the same time.
Um, but all walks of life.
A lot of counselors, uh, some people
who have relationship issues come here, people
who are celebrating an anniversary
or maybe they're mourning the loss of a loved one,
or maybe they're going through a job change different stages
and seasons of their lives,
and they're trying to, well, we, we help them
with the transitions of their lives.
Beautiful. So, lots of variety.
- How long do people typically stay?
- Actually, just a weekend - Is, oh,
- They come in on a Friday
around three or four in the afternoon.
They leave Sunday at 11 in the morning.
We offer them meals and meditations and massages
and 80 acres of walking trails.
- Wow. - They could sit
and read, rest, write journal, maybe nap ,
because there is a lot of sleep deprivation.
Yeah. Food is very healthy.
The meditations are meant to be a, a blend of a message
and some meditation time and some music.
Mm-Hmm. , uh, the walking trails, of course,
is the exposure to nature.
And we enjoy telling them on the first night something
that people hardly ever say to anybody.
You don't have to accomplish anything while you're here.
Rest reboot. Just be in the now.
- Oh, I love that. I love that.
It, I honestly sounds like I need to check in
and I'm not just saying that .
- Well, we would love to have you. Of course.
You know, you know, we would
- Thank you.
Tom, what advice can you offer to spiritual entrepreneurs
who want to create their own center or movement?
- Well, a little repeat of what I said a moment ago.
I think you, um, anyone would have great benefit in,
well, again, the vision
and the practicality to carry it out,
but undergirding that is a very protected passion
so that nothing is waning your dream, uh,
to make it lackluster or less.
Because if you're, if you're motivated with passion,
there's a great deal of surge, uh, momentum moving forward.
So I would say be passionate primarily.
- Yes, I agree. - And express that passion
to the other people that you wanna share the dream with.
So they become not only in tune with your passion,
but it becomes a ripple effect onto them.
Mm-Hmm. - .
- Um, there's also kind of a, I guess this is a statement
that my mom came up with up with, at least
that's the first person I heard stated, which was,
everything happens in divine time.
- Yeah. - So, you know, we worked on manifesting the stream
for this is over many years.
It wasn't snap the finger and here we're done,
but we had a lot of money to raise.
We had a lot of architecture to create.
We had a lot of people to gather.
We had land to find, you know, per find a place to have it.
Yeah. And, um, there were lots of stages that went along.
So it wa wasn't instantaneous. No.
And if something became a challenge,
like it didn't match the timing that we had expected Yeah.
We would default to, well, it just wasn't divine time.
So rather than resist that, we just said,
let's keep moving forward
and not get stuck by this temporary pause,
because there's always a purpose for the pause.
- Yeah. No, I love that. And you're absolutely correct.
It is all about divine timing in life.
And I do believe that it does start in creating it,
the manifesting Right.
And then following through
and making progress every step of the way. Yep.
- Um, - So I have a business
where I created a supplement to help, to help
with vacation constipation, as I like to say, .
- Oh. Oh, that's a great line. .
That is true for many people, myself included. Yeah.
- Yeah. It's a, it's a real issue
and it's a number of things.
Right. Stress, um, eating different time zones.
Just a, a, a variety of dehydration.
And it's an all natural, safe product.
And I had it in my mind for years. Right.
I was manifesting it
and I finally, you know, what started creating it
and making it in my kitchen.
And then it came to a point where like, oh, I need
to get it doctor approved, third party certified.
And, and now finally,
I just recently got it into walmart.com,
- So, oh, congratulations. Thank
- You.
So it's really exciting. That's a lot. It's, and I,
- I mean, you've only shared a few sentences about the
process, but they take, it takes months
and years, right? Yes,
- Exactly.
And, and do I wish that I was even further along? Yes.
But it's a divine timing. Right.
And I just am going at my pace in when it's
supposed to be. It's supposed to be.
- Yeah. Well, it's manifesting all along the way. Yes.
Congratulations. That's really something.
And, and to get into Walmart, is that a new store? No, I'm
kidding. - .
Yeah. I have some friends that are joking like Walmart.
I've never heard of this place. . Yeah. Right, right.
- Well, that's great.
I may have to touch base
with you on the information about your product.
- Oh, please do. Thank you.
And I'm definitely gonna be reaching out to you for, uh,
resting and resetting as as I know I need.
- Well, don't we all - . It is often said,
the way you start your day is the way you experience it.
What are your morning rituals
that keep you on track and present?
- Oh, thank you. Uh, I do have a morning ritual that
tries to extend even beyond into the day, .
- Oh, please share. - But I'm, you know, I have taught yoga
for many years, but I practice yoga,
and then I also have taught meditation,
and of course I practice it.
Imagine that I practice what I teach .
Isn't that a concept? . Uh, so I have that, I have, uh,
the value of some solitude time.
I also have the value of exercising. I, I'm a jogger.
I like to get some cardio going.
Uh, I also create, I, I call all of these practices.
Mm-Hmm. . Those are some
of the things I do at the beginning of the day.
But even creating some social time with friends is practice.
I heard it said once you can start your day
over at any time, .
So things are not correct, you know,
going the way you expected, you can start over,
even if it's two in the afternoon.
And that's a practice too that extends beyond the morning.
Mm-Hmm. . And, uh, the fees are times,
the earlier morning times are times to tune in to,
as I mentioned a moment ago, my purpose.
Why am I here? What are some of the goals of my day?
If I have 10 goals and I only reach three mm-Hmm.
, that's back to our divine timing.
And also the pace of our body and the pace of our emotions,
because we fluctuate from high motivation to not
so motivated, like a sunny day and a cloudy day.
I'm real clear about my mission.
I'm very cloudy about my mission and to honor the span
and the spectrum of our humanity as we go along the day.
That's part of my practice there.
So those help me move along.
- Yeah. I like how you said you could start your day over
even halfway at 2:00 PM Right.
Like a fresh start.
I like to go for a walk in the afternoon around two o'clock
to refresh
and get going again with getting back on track of things
that I need to accomplish for the day.
Um, but that to me is important.
I do tend to notice that I'm like it,
and it's not even, it's just a natural routine.
I'm like, oh, I feel like going for my walk now.
And it's around that time , or my body needs it.
- Sure. Mm-Hmm. , it's kind of like a back to your, um,
your product on vacation.
Constipation. Yeah. , you know, we have energy constipation.
- Oh - Yes. And nature is a reboot for that.
Like your walk. Yep.
And you know, who whatever reboot we can create
will clear the part that gets stuck,
or clocked so that we can move forward with flow, you know,
- Guests move and flow.
- Yeah, - Definitely.
- I love your questions. Ask me anything.
- Oh, you're so kind.
Well, how can people learn more about Timber Creek?
- Well, I mean, we have done a lot by word of mouth,
but we have a webpage
and it's just simply Timber Creek retreat.
Mm-Hmm. dot org org because we're a nonprofit. Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, that's probably the best way to get a taste of
what we're doing, especially if they wanna,
if they're not anywhere near the Kansas City area.
We have guests though, that come from all over,
including California.
Yeah, I know you're from there. Yeah.
So, uh, we're not just Kansas City area.
We're, we're not in the city of Kansas City.
We're about 40 minutes south. Okay.
On purpose to be in the country. Mm-Hmm.
and away from industrialization and activity on purpose.
Mm-Hmm. . But the webpage is the best way.
I have an an email address if they wanna reach out
to me personally, which is also Timber Creek
retreat at gmail
- Com. ,
I actually went to your website
and I did take a look at your retreat,
and it does look absolutely beautiful and peaceful
and tranquil and everything that you say
that it is, it looks like it really is. So, um,
- Yeah.
We're, we're that . I, we always love it when people come
and they have seen the pictures on the website,
and then they come here and they say, oh,
the pictures on the website don't do it Justice .
And I'm always grateful for that
because if you flip that around,
they say the pictures on the website were really good.
But now that I'm here, this is not so nice.
Yeah. it would not be good. .
- Yeah. Yeah. - So Yes. Wanting
- To be even more impressed in person,
and it sounds like they definitely are.
- Yeah. Well, we would of course, love to have you
and, uh, you'll, you'll move
that also in your own divine time.
You'll know, you'll know when
- Yeah.
That is true. People need to stop
and actually listen to their inner self more instead
of all the outside noise.
- There's a lot of outside noise.
There's a lot of inside noise too.
- Yes. Yes. ,
- It's probably about, uh, picking out
what voice you really need to listen to
and what voices are just a bunch of chitchat.
- Yep. I - Got energy drainers, you know.
- Yeah. Energy drainers. Energy drainers.
Well, Tom, would there be anything
that you'd like to share with us?
- Mostly gratitude for you and doing what you're doing.
Uh, it's very beautiful
and, uh, you are, uh, wonderful to talk to.
Very easy to talk to. You need to know that.
Very approachable. And other than that, uh,
we welcome anyone who's interested
to check out the website, they can inquire.
We'll be happy to accommodate them in
and how they need to, uh, reboot their lives.
- Well, I appreciate you, Tom.
So that is Timber Creek Resort House in Kansas City.
Please, please feel free to check it out online
and check in to reboot
- Reboot.
We have a lot of our words.
Reboot, rejuvenate, renew, refresh,
and Return to life.
- I love that. - Now, uh, thi Not Hanh has a statement
that we resonated with early on that said,
retreating is not meant to be an escape from the world
of responsibilities.
Social endeavors
and family retreating is meant to better equip you
to reenter the world for those purposes.
Mm-Hmm. . And we love that. It's practical spirituality.
Yeah.
- That's wonderful. Well, I believe that's it
for this episode of The Gutsy Babe with Lebanese.
I'm Liz Hall wishing you gutsy experiences
that leaves you breathless with excitement.
- Thank you, Liz. All the best.
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